Contact details

Malcolm Holmes has 11 years investment experience and has been a portfolio manager in his own right, which makes him the perfect candidate to oversee the evaluation of the underlying managers and their portfolios. As the head portfolio manager, Malcolm is the key person responsible for product development and design at STANLIB Multi-Manager. He is responsible for ensuring that our products meet their investment objectives and that the underlying managers meet their mandates.

STANLIB Multi-Manager

STANLIB Multi-Manager was established in 1999 and is the centre of excellence for multi-managed solutions within STANLIB. The investment team, led by Chief Investment Officer Joao Frasco, consists of an experienced team with a diverse set of investment skills. We have offices in Johannesburg and London, and currently have mandates in excess of R90 billion under stewardship. STANLIB Multi-Manager Funds are designed to deliver superior investment returns more consistently than through a single asset manager or mandate. Our approach allows investors’ to outsource the fund / manager selection decision, which includes the ongoing due diligence of managers and construction of portfolios, to meet pre-defined objectives over time. Risk management is a fundamental component of our investment philosophy and process and is therefore approached holistically. It permeates every part of our investment process, requiring participation and accountability from all individuals involved in the process.

Naweed Hoosenmia

Naweed joined the STANLIB Multi-Manager Research and Development Team at as a Quantitative Analyst. Prior to STANLIB, Naweed was a Portfolio Risk Analyst at Eminence Partners, a Johannesburg-based long/short equity hedge fund operated under the Peregrine fund platform.

Fund manager's comment

STANLIB MM Property comment - Jun 17

2017/09/19 00:00:00

Market overviewThe strong rally from global and domestic growth assets that characterized the first quarter subsided in June as economic and political risks resurfaced. In an attempt to hedge against this investors started seeking solace in short dated fixed income securities. In South Africa (SA), a third rating agency - Moody’s - downgraded SA’s local and foreign currency sovereign debt to one notch above junk status, citing lower growth prospects and a weaker fiscus as part of its concerns. This was a third ratings agency to downgrade SA sovereign bonds in 2017. On the back of this, cash outperformed bonds, returning 1.9% against 1.5%. Equities retreated 1.0% while property companies returned 0.9%. Poor economic growth together with the risk of a sell-off in bond yields, is not a good environment for growth assets such as property. It is not surprising then that property returned 0.9% for the quarter, lagging cash and bonds which returned 1.9% and 1.5% respectively.Portfolio reviewThe Fund lagged its benchmark for the quarter but outperformed by 1.9% over the one-year period. The higher exposure to SA focused companies detracted in the short-term as investor sentiment changed, influenced by the prospects of poor economic growth in SA. On the back of this, companies such as Accelerate, Dipula and Delta pulled back more than 10% over the quarter, hurting the Fund’s performance. These same companies were the main drivers of one-year returns. Performance from Bridge came off owing to this change in sentiment. In such an environment, we expected the PCAP to perform better as it has higher exposure to companies with offshore earnings. It was pleasing to see this scenario play out and the PCAP performed well due to the rebound in UK property shares. Catalyst also had a good quarter while STANLIB struggled. The Fund lagged its peers in June. However, its long-term performance relative to peers remains pleasing. The Fund outperformed peers by 0.7% over the past three years, ranking in the second quartile.Portfolio positioning and outlookThe Fund’s positioning remained relatively unchanged over the quarter. It maintained the overweight position in United Kingdom (UK) companies - uncertainty remains a factor as the UK continues with its negotiations with European Union but the valuation underpin on these companies makesthem difficult to ignore. To balance its foreign exposure, the Fund is also overweight high-yielding SA-centric small cap shares. Looking forward, we expect the US Fed to raise rates once more in 2017 as its economy improves. We do not anticipate this to have a big impact on SA assets. In SA, the political environment remains fragile and our expectations of economic growth are now lower than they were at the beginning of the year. The Fund has exposure, however, to high quality asset managers who can navigate through such periods. In this environment of increased uncertainty, we encourage clients to have a long-term focus when making and evaluating investment decisions.

Fund focus and objective

The Fund adopts a multi-managed approach to investing and blends experienced property managers with different investment philosophies and strategies.The Fund aims to provide investors with high income and long term capital growth by investing in listed property shares. The Fund's objective is to outperform the FTSE/JSE SA Listed Property Index (SAPY) and produce returns in excess of the ASISA Real Estate General Sector average.